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Spare Me a Marigold (Epilogue)
Goodbye= “Life asked death, ‘Why do people love me but hate you?’ Death responded, ‘Because you are a beautiful lie and I am a painful truth.” -Unknown Blossom had lost again. Not only did she lose, Silent Fate had been terminated entirely and all brutally slaughtered. Even as she lay dying, Blossom didn't want to think back to their gruesome deaths. Sweet, gentle, and optimistic Elise had died first. She had been brutally slaughtered by one of her brother's Pokémon, completely left until there was nothing but a bloody corpse. Blossom had remembered what Elise's last words had been, creating more guilt than she wanted. "I'm sorry I couldn't finish the job, boss. I hope we'll all meet up again someday and have a Casteliacone all together!" She couldn't shake off the image of Elise's head toppling aimlessly to the ground, ending the the little girl's life before it even began. Perhaps she might have been better off if she just kept running her families Casteliacone business. Leo had gone next, died protecting Alice from a deadly hit from Breeze. He had confessed his love to Alice before he died, asked if she would be able to avenge his death for him. They promised they would meet in the next life, except there would be happiness and love. Alice killed Breeze after that, slashing until the poor girl's blood covered everything. Little Lucienne had died after, after an attempt to murder the Emperor. He had killed her himself with no mercy, only slowly and painfully. During that time, Lucienne had coughed out that she did love him once, but it was the cruel fate of death that gave her the truth. She had told him to tell Alice how much she loved her, and hoped at least her sister could survive. Grey was the one who had protected Blossom, having been stabbed through the chest by the Empress just so she could survive. When she screamed and cried at him about why he did this, he had only simply said he wanted to not carry guilt and burden for once. Before he died however, he had confessed how much he regretted his decisions, and wished for a second chance. Vincent perhaps was the most heartbreaking. Both Winter and him had killed each other before anyone else could stop them. They died in each other's arms, finally confessing the sorrow and heartbreak they felt when they were apart. Winter apologized for everything she had done, but was stopped by Vincent to do the same. Blossom wished she could have at least saved one of them, but didn't dare intervene. Brave Alice had died after, trying to fend off both the Emperor and the Empress. They were too much for her to handle, but she still tried her best. Before getting decapitated, Alice had pleaded for one last minute to say what she wanted to say to the world. She yelled about how hard it was, how much she hated it, but also how much she loved it and everyone around her. Alice died with no regrets. Celica had died last, painfully and lonely. She had also gotten murdered by the Emperor as well, but not before telling him that she wanted to be stabbed through the heart. Turning her head towards Blossom, she had thanked her for the opportunity and the joy of being part of Silent Fate. Celica had promised she would never forget it, not even in death. Only Blossom had survived, but even she didn't have long to live. She had challenged her brother to a fight, to end it all. She expected to lose, even saw it as he swung his katana down at her. What she didn't expect, was how worried they were for her. "Arny, Cyra, why do you even care about me? I ran away, started a rebel guild, and even fought against you all. I'm be the last person you should be worrying about." "Blossom," he had said quietly, face close to tears. She could even see it on Cyra, someone who she had never seen cry before in her life. It was only when the tears came out that she realized that they did love her. "It hurt us so much to do this, but we couldn't have let you win no matter what." "I understand, you two." said Blossom weakly, struggling to unclasp her necklace. Motioning for Cyra to come closer, she handed her the Pokeball that was for Latias. "Cyra, please take care of Latias. I don't want her to be alone and I know she'll enjoy your company very much." "Blossom, I can't acc-" "You can't accept what? I'm going to die anyways, but I want Latias and her brother to live fully. She'll fetch Latios if you ask her to do so, just don't treat them terribly. Please, Latias was my best friend other than you." This shut Cyra up immediately. Blossom knew she felt guilty for this, though it didn't matter to her anymore. She was going to die, there was nothing and nobody to stop her now. She had lived life as a heiress, a perfect daughter, a princess, and an assassin. Turning her gaze to Arnold, Blossom gave her brother the last request she would ever give. "Spare me a Marigold." "What are you talking about? This is no time for jokes Blossom!" he had yelled, through tears. It didn't occur to him why his younger sister would want a Marigold, especially when she was about to die like this. He had so much to say to her, but all she wanted was a flower? "Arny, bury me with a single Marigold when I die. This is Goodbye, not See you or Hello. Please, fulfill my last request so that I can die with no regrets or sorrow." He nodded to her request, promising to bury her in a valley of marigolds. He would force all his citizen's to plant more each year, so that they she would never run out of them. He would not spare her one, but all of the marigolds in the world. Blossom would have laughed if she still had the strength to do so, which she didn't. She felt herself slowly finish bleeding out, meaning it was almost time for her to die. "Goodbye, my lord and my lady. It was an honour to be a younger sister, sister-in-law, and the enemy. I-I love you both and I will n-never forget e-either of y-you. La mort est ma chér-" Blossom never finished her sentence, for her body had gone limp. By then, even the sky had begun to cry for her, the raindrops tapping onto her ghostly white skin. Arnold and Cyra had long broken into tears, both holding her close. Blossom would never be able understand what falling in love was, or how much everybody cared for her, for Death had gotten to her before anybody else. It was over. |-| After Story= It was that time of the year again, the time where they all went to plant marigolds. For Penelope and Lilia, this was just a normal holiday, but it was much more for their parents. Today was the day that their aunt had died, years before they were even born. From her own diary entries and interrogation of their parents, the twins had come to a conclusion that Blossom had been a lovely person. Of course, their parents were just as wonderful as Blossom. They were blessed to have been children of the Emperor and Empress, born as absolute perfection from the moment they took their first breath. Penelope and Lilia were twins, although Penelope had been older by a few minutes than Lilia. This didn't stop their sibling rivalry though, as they had been fighting over who was more perfect since they were kids. They were both beautiful, with Penelope having brown hair and blue eyes and Lilia having black hair and grey eyes. The twins excelled in everything they did, obviously expecting no less than perfection and praise from their parents. The other children secretly hated the twins, but they were just probably jealous of their perfection. They barely stood a chance against the twins, always feeling inferior to them. The only two other children who had gotten even close were Faye and Clive and they were the grandchildren of very close friends of the Royal Family. However, they could only excel at so much and were still considered inferior. The only thing that had confused them since they were little kids was the topic on the death of their aunt. For some reason, neither the Emperor or the Empress had bothered to tell them what exactly had happened to her. Even after snooping around, the only image of Blossom was a portrait from her earlier days in the main hall. It was tragic that no one (except their parents) knew the true meaning behind today. Lilia had spied earlier this morning and saw that her mother had even taken Latias out to play. She adored Latias, although Penelope had once admitted that she herself was more fond of Latios. They didn't dare mention the eavesdropping when it was time to leave. Today was a special day, and the twins didn't dare ruin the mood by talking about their spying. ~ "Penelope, you've done a wonderful job planting it perfectly as always." praised Arnold, patting his eldest on her back. With her father's support, Penelope beamed with pride as she smiled haughtily at Lilia. The youngest was furiously planting hers out of anger, but her mother stopped before she could. "Lilia, for once in your life, please stop competing with your sister. The same goes for you, Penelope. Today is a very important day and we don't need you two to ruin it by fighting with each other." Wow, even Mother is against me today.. thought Lilia, huffing as she planted her marigold. Standing back to admire her work, she secretly wondered which one aunt Blossom would like if she were alive. Judging from what she knew of her, Lilia had mentally decided that Blossom would have liked her better. Penny was way too uptight for her age, always aiming to be the best of the best. She herself worked tirelessly as well, to get better than Penny. Although Lilia had always laughed with the naturally genius Faye that everything was so easy, she didn't want her friend to know how hard she had to work just to beat Penny. She was perfect in the eyes of everybody but herself, never satisfied until she would be able to beat Penny in a certain subject or activity. "Lily, there you are." Lilia turned around to see the person she had been thinking about a mere minutes ago, Faye. For the longest time, Lilia had always wondered if her friend had been adopted, for she bared no resemblance to either of her parents. She did however, bare an uncanny resemblance to one of the portraits in the palace. Her friend shared beige hair with silver in it, and unnerving light brown eyes. Although neither admitted it, they both knew of how calculating Faye was. I'm 99% sure that if she had the opportunity, Faye would find some sort of way to overthrow Penny and take the throne for herself.. thought Lilia, watching as she followed her friends distasteful gaze to Clive. They'd both known that he had a massive crush on Penny, but neither actually expected him to go and confess. Compared to Faye, he's certainly much nicer and timid. I hope Penny doesn't go too hard on him.. Watching as the young boy walked up the bored girl, both Lilia and Faye waited to see what would happen. Would Penny give him a chance, or would she ruthlessly turn him down? "Penny, would you mind if I had a minute of your time?" asked Clive timidly, tapping the latter on the shoulder. He'd always been shy, especially around Penelope even though his sister would later scold him for it. He loved her dearly, just found her a little too ambitious sometimes. To his relief, she turned around and calmly asked him to carry on with what he had been planning to say. "I'm in love with you and I was hoping if you would accept and return those feelings. Please spend the rest of your youthful days with me!" he exclaimed, loud enough for Faye and Lilia to hear. Lilia could have sworn that she had seen her mother (who had been standing nearby) smile, but quickly hid it. Penny stared and blinked at him for a long time, before glaring slightly at him. Lilia could see the fire start up in Faye's eyes, something that rarely occurred. Whether it was anger at Clive or anger at Penny for embarrassing him, she would never know. Whatever it was, it wasn't as heartbreaking as the sight of Clive almost breaking down. "I'm sorry Clive, but is this some sort of joke?" said Penny politely, after thinking about it for a good 10 minutes, waiting for his answer. A part of her did admire him, though only as friends and friendly rivals. Besides, she had much more important things to deal with than love, especially with the brother of one her biggest rivals. "You know I don't have time for these kind of confessions." By now, the poor boy had already come close to crying. Lilia wanted to go over and comfort him, but knew better than to interrupt or defy Penny. Her sister had always been ruthless, so this wasn't something new. She had gotten various proposals over the years, but turned all of them swift and ruthlessly. One thing Lilia enjoyed was how polite Penelope was when she did, even if she did do it savagely. "I-I just w-wanted to te-" "Clive, stop making a fool of yourself in front of her." said Faye, interrupting her brother. On one hand, she was embarrassed and disappointed in her brother for doing this, but on the other hand she was annoyed that Penelope would embarrass her brother like this. Imagine if Eliza were here to see this happen! "Penelope, you've done enough damage here. I suggest you stop treating my brother like a joke and take this event seriously, after all, it is for your aunt." That comment immediately made Penny glare at Faye at Faye. Smiling haughtily, Faye took her Clive's hand and led him away. Knowing Faye had succeeded or tied had always pissed her off, refusing to admit that the future Grand Duchess was much better. The only time Penny had actually enjoyed Faye was when she had seen her true smile, that one time that they didn't have anything to compete over. "I can't believe the nerve of that girl, thinking she's so much better. I don't get why you're still friends with her, Lily." hissed Penny as her sister walked over. Lily frowned back at her, obviously not taking the insult of her friend lightly. Penny was about to go after Faye, until a sharp tap from her mother brought her back to her senses. Turning around to make eye contact with the frowning Empress, she knew she and Lilia were going to be in for a very long lecture. Penny wondered why her mother would ask both of them to come with her. "Mother, is there something you want to talk to us about?" asked Penny quietly, as polite as she could in order to not further anger her mother. They had walked far enough to be away from everybody else and could talk in private now. "Why do we need Lily here as well?" "Penny, Lilia," said Cyra quietly, her tone starting to go dark. She hated having to scold her daughters, but it was the only way to get them to behave. "You shouldn't have brushed Clive off like that, it was very rude even if you did do it politely. And for you Lilia, why didn't you bother stopping him if you knew what was going to happen. If Blossom was here, she wouldn't have been happy to see either of you behaving like this." Penny could feel herself get icy at the comment her mother made at her, but didn't dare say a word. However, it was Lilia who really got angry by her mother's comment. She might have been the Empress but what right did she have in using dead aunt against her? They had never known their aunt, apart from the portrait in the main hall. "I can't believe you keep scolding me today!" snapped Lily, hurt by how much her mother had scolded her today. She just wanted to have some fun today, not get yelled at every 5 minutes. Part of her rejoiced that it wasn't her father who was yelling at her, but it didn't make it any less worse. Cyra softened her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but chose not to after a breath. Sighing to herself, she decided that leaving her youngest daughter to reflect on her own was the best course of action. Lily didn't dare turn around or say anything until her mother had left, waiting for her sister to tell her that it was all clear. It was only after Cyra had gone did Lily finally let her breath out and started ranting. Stomping on a few of the Marigolds, Lily started to release the anger and irritation she had been holding in to Penny. She had always acted happy and confident around the others, but only was she truly alone (or with Penny) could she vent her emotions more freely. "I don't get why everyone always chooses this stupid holiday to start and insulting me!" she hissed, ripping up a few of the Marigolds and watching their bright petals scatter. Watching the flowers scatter created temporary satisfaction for Lily, having always hated them since she was a little child. The bright petals had always been taunting, hiding something deeper that she didn't know. "I hate these stupid Marigolds that we have to plant every year for some person that I've never ever met! I bet she didn't even die a nob-" "Latias!" Lily stopped mid-rant, and was greeted by the appearance of Latias. The Psychic type Pokémon flew and nuzzled her gently, before launching a mist ball in her face. "Hey! What was that for?!" spluttered Lily, trying to get rid of the mist from the attack. She'd been surprised that Latias had even come over, usually the Psychic type preferred to keep her distance away from everybody. The only person she had gotten semi-close to was the Empress, but even that closeness had a limit. "That was for insulting my late master, you dimwit." "Wow, what the?!" exclaimed Lily, catching a confused and concerned look from Penny. One glare from the Psychic type was all she needed for confirmation that it was indeed Latias who had spoken. Holding up her hands in a gesture of peace, Blossom decided to go back to the topic at hand. "What do you mean by late master?" "Blossom, of course. If only both of you knew the true meaning behind this celebration and just how important Blossom was to me." explained Latias, almost shedding a tear. By now Penny could hear the telepathic speech as well, sending a sympathetic look to Latias. She had a point, they would never be able to understand how important Blossom was to Latias unless they were there themselves. The only thing they could possibly do was to get Latias to tell them just what had exactly happened. Taking her spot on the ground, Latias started to explain what had happened from start to finish. She started from when she had first met Blossom as a child, who was with her brother Arnold. Latias remembered forming a bond with her and wondering if Latios would form one with her brother, to which he didn't do. He had chased after Eliza instead, preferring her over Arnold. Latias remembered being bonded to Blossom for an insanely long time, having been through almost everything together. She remembered watching Lupo die, watching Wolfie die, and finally watching Blossom die. From her story, apparently Lupo had been their supposed saviour, but was killed off by the Emperor later on. His son died in a similar fashion, allowing Blossom and her little friend to escape. "What happened to Blossom? asked Penny softly, breaking the tense silence that was over them. While she hadn't exactly cared for what happened to Lupo and Wolfie, she was just as desperate as Lily to know what had become of their aunt. "How did she die?" "Oh, your parents never told you? Her own brother killed her in a duel." explained Latias, staring over the meadows filled with marigolds. Even now, what had happened that day was crystal clear in her mind. She remembered how Blossom had been alright with it, how all she wanted was for Arnold to spare her a marigold. "It could have been avoided, but it wasn't. We can't do anything but we can still honour her memory by sparing her a marigold." Penny stayed silent, but it was Lily who burst into tears at the story. She had always wondered why her parents refused to bring anything related to Blossom up, and now she knew why. How could they tell their daughters that it was their own father who killed his sister. Lily knew that he didn't have a choice, but still. "Why did she pick a marigold? Why would she make her dying wish this?" cried Lily, forcing Latias to tell them more. Lily needed to know why her aunt had chosen this flower, when she herself had always hated it. Marigolds were supposed to mean happiness, weren't they? Latias sighed to herself and explained the exact reason why to the sisters. It was because they didn't represent happiness, but instead pain and grief. Blossom had wanted Marigolds so that it could signify that she was comforting the Emperor and Empress's grieving. She had originally asked for one, but was given an everlasting supply. "Now do you see the true meaning behind this holiday?" said Latias, straightening herself and flying in the air again. She wouldn't let anyone insult Blossom, not even if it was her own kin. It was the only thing she could do after having failed her job as a guardian. "You two should go back, it's almost time for everyone to leave." Penny nodded at the Psychic type and took Lily's hand to lead her away. Lily tried to find some sort of grief or sadness on Penny's face, but was surprised that there was nothing but emptiness. It was only when they were at a safe enough distance away did she start to say something. "Although I don't want to believe it, I understand why Father had to do what he did." said Penny softly, staring ahead at the fields of gold. Lily nodded softly and joined her sisters gaze to the fields ahead. They would never know her, never be able to see her, but that didn't mean she was gone. She was the very soul behind these flowers, the reason for their existence. It was strange, but deep down, the sisters knew that Blossom had forgiven their parents. She was simply comforting the griefs and burdens now. Sharing the silent moment together, both Penny and Lily wondered what would await them in the future. Would there be more wars like this one? Would this field of gold disappear one day? They would never know. I forgive you.